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Planning your journey to Bolivia and solely have a couple of days to spend on this stunning county? On this publish, I’ll share our itinerary for five days in Bolivia visiting La Paz and Salar de Uyuni (and, moreover, you may go to yet one more location of your alternative, Lake Titikaka, Cochabamba and even drive the well-known Loss of life street). We have been planning to go to Cochacabana on lake Titikaka, nonetheless, sadly, because of the lack of vacationers, no excursions have been going there on the one day we have been there.
The overview of hyperlinks used on this article:
Issues you might want to know earlier than travelling to Bolivia
Bolivia is among the lesser-visited international locations in South America and in contrast to most international locations on the continent, it’s landlocked. Bolivia additionally doesn’t have nice worldwide flight connections – once we went there simply after the covid restrictions have been lifted, there have been solely two worldwide flights per day going to and from Bolivia. One was to Lima, one other one to Bogotá. On high of that, there have been days when there have been no flights in any respect.
Have your paperwork prepared
It’s additionally considerably troublesome to enter Bolivia: these requiring a visa on arrival should spend hours within the queue! Even when your entry was easy (e.g. no visa required), you could possibly nonetheless spend 10-Quarter-hour on the passport management counter. Since there is no such thing as a wi-fi on arrival and most international locations don’t have good roaming agreements with Bolivia (not like in Peru, the place we had limitless information and requires £6 a day with Vodafone), it’s very troublesome to retrieve your paperwork. The paperwork you want are insurance coverage, resort bookings and return tickets. Additionally, relying on the present necessities, you may want some vaccination certificates and PCR assessments – however which may change quickly.
Ensure that to save lots of them in your telephone (take screenshots or simply save them within the recordsdata), as passport management officers will verify all these paperwork!
Deliver multiple financial institution card
In Bolivia, money is king. In fact, you may pay by card in good eating places, however most locations solely settle for money. There are ATMs on the airport (fairly a couple of), however not all of them work with worldwide playing cards. We needed to attempt two playing cards till we tried our Monzo card that labored in certainly one of 8 ATMs. Sadly, I didn’t keep in mind which financial institution owned this ATM, but it surely was in direction of the top of the room. Ensure that to deliver multiple journey financial institution card and don’t get discouraged if many of the ATMs received’t work – there are ATMs there that may work with international playing cards.
Web and information in Bolivia
Since we wanted information to seek out our means round La Paz, we determined to purchase a SIM card in one of many memento outlets in La Paz airport (the one open place). They solely accepted money as properly. We bought a SIM card with information and acquired two scratch playing cards for information refills. I need to say that the web is a bit costly in Bolivia: for 20 Bolivianos you solely get about 2GB of information. It doesn’t stretch too far, so that you most likely find yourself solely utilizing information for navigation and important issues and use Social media at your resort.
Security in Bolivia: how secure is La Paz
Earlier than travelling to Bolivia, I’ve heard some blended critiques about security in La Paz and El Alto. Some individuals felt uneasy there, whereas others felt very secure. Having spent 3 days in La Paz (and slightly little bit of El Alto as properly), I need to say that we all the time felt very secure there. Not even as soon as have we skilled a scenario the place we felt uneasy or somebody was unusually all in favour of us. As an individual, who grew up in Mexico Metropolis, Jose has a watch on individuals, who may discretely comply with you and have an excessive amount of curiosity in you for no good purpose. That was very totally different in comparison with town centre of Quito (the capital of Ecuador), the place it wasn’t very secure in any respect.
Nonetheless, it’s price mentioning that we adopted all the conventional precautions, e.g. not strolling alone late at evening, taking solely authorised taxis, and taking note of all our belongings. For travelling South America I purchased a really discrete crossbody bag with a whole lot of pockets, together with some inside pockets, which might be very onerous to entry for pick-pocketers. Furthermore, it’s waterproof and suits a whole lot of stuff! I believe it’d nonetheless be offered on-line, if you happen to’re , you may discover it right here >>
Earlier than we begin with our solutions for five days in Bolivia and our detailed itinerary, I needed to share the overview of our itinerary:
Our itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days:
Day 1: Arriving at La Paz airport (most likely late at evening / early within the morning), exploring La Paz, evening bus to Salar de Uyuni
Day 2: Day tour to Salar de Uyuni, an evening at Lodge de Sal, Luna Salada (or an evening bus to La Paz)
Day 3: Flight to La Paz with 5 hours to spend in Cochabamba, evening at Selina La Paz or MET Lodge La Paz
Day 4: A day tour of your alternative: Copacabana (Titikaka Lake) or a tour to the Loss of life street
Day 5: Exploring La Paz, late evening flight onwards to Lima or Bogota
Now let’s speak about this itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days in additional particulars!
Day 1 of 5 days in Bolivia: La Paz and evening bus to Uyuni
Passport management in La Paz
We landed in La Paz round 3:30am! Since there aren’t too many worldwide flights arriving to La Paz (as of now, you may solely fly there from Lima or Bogota, we flew from the latter), you’ll possible land in La Paz very early, simply le we did. On the one hand, it’s wonderful, as a result of you’ve gotten the whole day to spend in La Paz. However, if you happen to haven’t had an opportunity to sleep within the airplane (s), you’ll arrive exhausted. Since passport management takes fairly a little bit of time (I’ve written about it in a separate paragraph proper at the beginning of this publish), you’ll solely get to town centre of La Paz at 5:30am and even 6:00am. Since we had to purchase a SIM card and, surprisingly, the method took a bit lengthy, we arrived simply after 6am.
The place to remain in La Paz
When you’re feeling high-quality, you may simply depart your baggage at some hostel for a price and begin exploring La Paz. Nonetheless, we have been tremendous drained, so we really went straight to our hostel. We booked Selina La Paz for two nights (regardless of solely needing it for about 16 hours), but it surely was solely £18 per evening for a personal room, so we didn’t hesitate a lot. After arriving at Selina, we went straight to sleep and slept till 11am (for about 5 hours), which gave us sufficient vitality to outlive the day!
When you’re similar to us and really feel such as you want a resort to sleep for at the very least a few hours, I positively suggest Selina!
Some nicer and posher accommodations are positioned within the South of La Paz, e.g. Achumani station, however it is going to be very inconvenient to remain there only for a few hours since many of the landmarks are positioned within the metropolis centre, and that’s the place the buses to Uyuni depart from as properly. You possibly can keep there later while you return from Uyuni.
Exploring Sopocachi and consuming in one of the best restaurant in Bolivia
Selina, the place we stayed for the primary day, is positioned in Sopocachi, among the best areas to remain in La Paz for younger individuals. There are many good bars and low locations throughout the world. There are additionally a couple of road meals markets, eating places and it’s usually only a very good and hipster space to stroll round. The one draw back in Sopocachi is site visitors. Even at 12pm, a whole lot of roads are fairly congested! We ended up arriving 20 minutes later to the restaurant, as a result of we waited for a taxi for about Quarter-hour. Then, because of the site visitors circumstances, it took us about 35 minutes as an alternative of 15-20 to get to the South of La Paz, Calacoto.
Gustu is positioned within the South of La Paz, that’s thought of a fancy space of town. Gustu was opened by a co-founder of the well-known Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of many world’s greatest eating places. We took a 3-course menu, which price round £22 per particular person and was price each penny! You possibly can select a starter, foremost and a dessert and all of the dishes have been distinctive. We relied on the waiters’ assist to elucidate the menu to us as we couldn’t recognise many of the elements. Among the many dishes, there have been native river fishes from the Bolivian a part of the Amazon rainforest, varied distinctive herbs, greens and fruits and even alligator carpaccio!
Strolling across the metropolis centre and visiting Mirador Kili-Kili
Later, we took a taxi to get again to town centre, the place we visited Calle Jaen – one of many only a few protected streets in La Paz, the place it’s not allowed to demolish buildings and do just about any visible adjustments to the streets. Calle Jaen is unquestionably the prettiest road in La Paz, so head there for some stunning photographs. On Calle Jaen, we discovered a stunning little tour company, the place we booked some excursions for the upcoming days in La Paz (a meals tour and a teleferico tour of town).
We didn’t spend an excessive amount of time within the metropolis centre this time, as we knew that we’ll have extra time in La Paz later and actually have a correct tour of town. Earlier than heading again to the resort, we determined to go to one of the best place to see La Paz from above – mirador Kili Kili! You solely have to stroll for about 20-25 minutes to get there from Calle Jaen.
The view from Kili Kili is basically beautiful – you may see the 360 panorama of La Paz!
Taking an evening bus to Uyuni
After visiting the mirador, we returned to our resort to bathe, pack our baggage (we determined to go away our suitcase in Selina and decide it up in a day) and produce simply our backpacks with us. We determined to take the bus to Uyuni from an organization referred to as Todo Turismo. That they had one of the best critiques and security report; actually, it was a fantastic expertise.
The bus departs within the night, at 9pm, nonetheless, you might want to be at their workplace at the very least Quarter-hour earlier than that. Todo Turismo workplace has bogs and different services.
Our bus was wonderful – it had two ranges – the VIP on the bottom stage and the conventional seats on the primary ground. Since I’m fairly dangerous at sleeping within the buses, we went for probably the most handy possibility, the VIP seats that recline fairly properly (most likely round 150 levels or so). Regular tickets price round $36-38 a method and VIP prices a bit extra, round $45 every means. It’s positively not low-cost, however the planes to Uyuni are far more costly, plus, you’re saving cash on the resort. Alternatively, if that’s not accessible otherwise you’re searching for a less expensive possibility, you may discover extra tickets right here.
The tickets additionally embrace meals – dinner and breakfast and so they have been good! The one downside we had was the truth that it bought extraordinarily scorching inside the beautiful insulated VIP compartment – I awakened due to that and needed to go and ask them to change on Air-conditioning.
A day tour round Salar de Uyuni
We arrived on the Todo Turismo workplace in Uyuni round 7:45 am. Their workplace additionally has bogs, tea and a few cozy sofas if you wish to wait there for a short while till your tour begins. Really, the excursions begin round 10:30 am, however you might want to get to the tour company’s workplace Half-hour earlier.
We determined to ebook this tour – it was the best-rated tour in Uyuni and it exceeded our expectations. It began fairly slowly, the primary 3 hours have been fairly uneventful (simply the practice cemetery, some technical stops to choose up the wellies and a cease within the salt museum and memento store), nonetheless, later it was solely getting higher and higher!
We had a beautiful buffet lunch in the midst of Salar, 1 hour in Fish island after which we had a photoshoot in the midst of Salar. Our group was fairly giant – we have been 18 individuals in whole and our information shot a video with all of the tour contributors – it was enjoyable! After that, we had some snacks and wine watching sundown in Salar and even one further exercise – stargazing, which was wonderful!
It was such a protracted tour and we bought to our resort round 8:45pm (they introduced us all the way in which to Lodge de Sal Luna Salada, which we booked for one evening).
This tour is stylish and it tends to promote out, so make sure that to verify the costs and availability right here >>
Night time at a salt resort
We have been initially hoping to remain at Palacio del Sal, nonetheless, it was absolutely booked, so as an alternative, we booked one other good salt resort, Lodge de Sal Luna Salada. It’s positioned barely additional away from Uyuni, circa 15-20 minutes driving, nonetheless, a number of the rooms had a view of Salar, which was wonderful. General, the resort itself was beautiful, however the meals and the spa weren’t nice. Nonetheless, we nonetheless loved our expertise – it was very distinctive! And the resort itself was completely beautiful, particularly the beautiful lounge areas with fireplaces with views of Salar.
Day 3 in Bolivia: Flying to La Paz, Cochabamba
Uyuni to Cochabamba by airplane
For the reason that first and second days in Bolivia have been already fairly tiring, we determined to take a flight from Uyuni to La Paz as an alternative of the evening bus. Earlier than the pandemic, there was loads of direct flights to La Paz from Uyuni, nonetheless, as of Might 2022, there have been none. Really, there have been simply 3 flights per week and all of them went to Cochabamba and never La Paz. Nonetheless, it was attainable to purchase a flight from Cochabamba to La Paz as properly. There are a number of flights to La Paz from Cochabamba, so you may take the one with the shortest ready time if you wish to go to La Paz as quickly as attainable. Alternatively, you may spend a couple of hours in Cochabamba and uncover town.
Issues to do in Cochabamba in a couple of hours
Cochabamba shouldn’t be an enormous metropolis, so it’s positively attainable to see some foremost highlights in simply a few hours. The airport is nearly 10-Quarter-hour away from town centre. You possibly can simply seize a taxi and head to the Plaza de Armas.
Cochabamba can be the meals capital of Bolivia. All of the individuals we met in La Paz (locals) really helpful us to go to Cochabamba to eat!
Lastly, it’s price mentioning that Cochabamba is basically scorching! Whereas each Uyuni and La Paz are positioned at excessive altitudes, Cochabamba’s altitude is sort of zero – and it’s 30 levels there!
Night in La Paz, shifting accommodations
Relying on the time you arrive in El Alto – La Paz, you may both head on to your resort or stroll round and eat dinner someplace.
We selected the second possibility. For dinner, we picked Manq’a, a spot specialising in Bolivian dishes. All the pieces was completely scrumptious there and so they had a whole lot of uncommon dishes on the menu (together with some distinctive desserts and drinks).
After dinner, we needed to decide up our baggage from Selina. We didn’t decide Selina for the subsequent few nights in La Paz as a result of there have been a whole lot of feedback within the critiques concerning the noise on the weekends, as there’s a nightclub positioned within the basement of Selina.
After a really tiring a part of our journey to South America, we determined to deal with ourselves and keep in among the best accommodations of La Paz, the lately opened MET Lodge positioned within the leafy neighbourhood referred to as Achumani.
Day 4: Exploring La Paz or taking a day journey
On the 4th day in Bolivia, you may both keep in La Paz and proceed exploring town or take one of many day journeys and both go to Copacabana (lake Titicaca) or to one of many mountains, or, alternatively, perhaps you’re feeling match to go to the well-known dying street biking journey?
Listed below are a number of the greatest excursions you may take in your 4th day in Bolivia:
Personal tour to lake Titikaka (requires minimal two individuals) – it is possible for you to to see probably the most stunning and largest lakes on the earth – verify availability right here.
The well-known bike tour to the dying street (it’s a descent from over 5k over the ocean stage), but it surely’s nonetheless a really difficult tour, because it requires superb bodily situation – ebook right here.
Lovely Palca Canyon Tour with an non-compulsory cease at Valle de las Animas – verify right here.
Chacaltaya & Valle de Luna Tour (make sure that to deliver heat garments, as Chacaltaya was a ski resort) – verify right here.
Condoriri and the lagoons full trekking tour for trekking lovers – verify the supply right here.
Austria Peak Trek – verify availability.
Well-known Huayna Potosi mountain trek – all the way in which as much as 5000m above the ocean stage with beautiful views (difficult) – see worth.
When you resolve to spend a day in La Paz as an alternative…
In our case, the excursions for lake Titicaca weren’t accessible on that day as a consequence of lack of guides and vacationers as properly and I had some odd points with my knee, so I couldn’t go on any excursions that concerned a whole lot of strolling (not even mentioning trekking), so we determined to remain in La Paz as an alternative.
We spent the morning and early afternoon strolling across the “posh” a part of La Paz – Achumani. The purchasing space was positioned circa 10 minutes strolling from our resort, which was nice. This space is way better than the centre of La Paz and in addition, it’s a lot simpler to breathe there, because it’s additionally decrease than the remainder of La Paz. There are many outlets and cafes as properly.
For lunch, we went to a restaurant referred to as Ancestral for lunch. Ancestral is a steakhouse and it was fabulous. I can positively suggest it! The costs have been most likely 3-4 occasions decrease than in London.
Heading to town centre and visiting Mercado de las Brujas
After lunch, we determined to take the teleferico to town centre to go to the well-known Witches Market or Mercado de las Brujas, the place they promote new child llamas and llama foetuses that cling exterior the stalls (they appear surreal and even a bit terrifying). Contained in the “Brujas” stalls, they promote varied teas, soaps and sweet which might be produced for various causes, e.g. to assist discover a job, discover love, getting wealthy amongst different issues.
Taking a meals tour of La Paz
Within the night, we had our meals tour of La Paz., the place our information introduced us to the primary meals market of La Paz, Mercado Lanza, positioned steps away from the primary sq.. There are such a lot of meals stalls and most of them promote varied Bolivian dishes. We had an opportunity to attempt a few them and so they have been fairly distinctive and superb! Afterward, we went to a restaurant with our information, the place we had a tasting of 5 extra well-liked dishes in Bolivia, similar to Fricasé, Sopa de Mani, Chairo and others! When you’re all in favour of taking an analogous tour, you may verify the costs and availability right here.
Our final day in Bolivia: Teleferico tour of La Paz, yet one more go to to Mercado Lanza, Ice Cream from Netflix and the flight to the subsequent vacation spot
Teleferico tour of La Paz
The final day of our 5 days in Bolivia we determined to spend in La Paz and this time, see La Paz correctly and discover our extra concerning the historical past of town. We booked a Teleferico tour of La Paz (you may discover the supply right here).
I can positively suggest this tour – it was simply $10 per particular person and even included all of the tickets for the Teleferico. Our information, Maria, instructed us quite a bit concerning the historical past of La Paz and El Alto and concerning the Cholitas (ladies in conventional Bolivian attire) and Cholets (a word-play for Cholitas + Chalets), which rich Aymara (indigenous individuals) of El Alto and La Paz construct for themselves. There may be additionally a captivating tour of one of the best Cholets in El Alto together with visiting a celebration – you may discover out extra right here >
Making an attempt Sopa de Cardan and Helado de Canela
After the tour, we determined to go to Mercado Lanza one final time and attempt to discover the well-known bull testicle soup of Bolivia – Sopa de Cardan. This soup may be very well-liked in El Alto within the mornings, however we managed to seek out it in Mercado Lanza within the afternoon as properly. Then, we went to attempt one other thrilling dish in La Paz, this time, a dessert! There’s a well-known Netflix road meals documentary and one of many episodes was devoted to La Paz. So we went to attempt the well-known ice cream place close to the cemetery in La Paz. It serves a really distinctive cinnamon ice cream (it’s not really an ice cream, extra like a sorbet) – and it’s pink!
Within the afternoon, we walked across the metropolis centre and tried the final of the dishes really helpful to us by the locals – the normal pasties – Salteñas. There are many spots serving salteñas within the coronary heart of La Paz, nonetheless, we discovered a restaurant referred to as Paceña la Salteña, which specialises in them. I picked a vegetarian one and Jose bought a meaty one – each of them have been very liquid inside and tasted like a soup, which was fairly distinctive. When consuming a salteña, it’s very straightforward to make a multitude, so make sure that to watch out when consuming it!
We additionally went to a shopping center referred to as Las Torres and spent a while in Juan Valdez cafe there. It was additionally very attention-grabbing to see how a Bolivian shopping center seems like.
After that, we went again to our resort MET to start out packing and attempt to get some sleep earlier than our flight at 3am. As I discussed beforehand, the 2 worldwide flights depart from La Paz each depart at evening. One departs at 3:30am, one other one a bit later. It’s onerous to resolve whether or not to go to mattress early and attempt to sleep 3-5 hours earlier than the flight or stay awake in any respect. Taking a taxi to El Alto airport at evening additionally means there received’t be any site visitors, so you will get there in simply 20-Half-hour relying in your location! In our case, it took round 28 minutes to go there from the Southern a part of La Paz
Abstract of 5 days in Bolivia: Uyuni and La Paz
I hope you discovered this itinerary for Bolivia in 5 days helpful and bought some concepts in your future journey to stunning Bolivia. Naturally, 5 days will not be sufficient to see a whole lot of Bolivia, but it surely’s sufficient to see Uyuni and get to know La Paz (and in addition one of many places like Copacapaba or the Loss of life Highway)! We liked our Bolivia expertise and hope to return there sooner or later!
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